Water
drips off the end of my kayak paddle. The plump drops
splash into a lake surface as smooth as glass, sending
out ripples that disturb the mirrored reflections of
soaring golden sandstone cliffs. Above the cliff rim,
the land runs back flat a few miles then begins to undulate
like a roiling sea. The rounded hills are of rainbow
hue and crash against yet another cliff that rises like
a blood-stained parapet. A cloudless cerulean sky arches
overhead. A scene that just seems to beg for Zane Greyesque
purple prose.
This
tranquil morning finds me alone in my sea kayak somewhere
in the vast San Juan Arm of Lake Powell, a lake that
shouldn’t be here in the desert heart of the Colorado
Plateau. A lake that wouldn’t be here except for
the drive of humankind to impose its will upon nature.
A drive that led to the construction of a gigantic concrete
plug on the Colorado River just south of the Utah-Arizona
state line. The waters of the Colorado and San Juan
Rivers, along with a number of their tributaries, are
caught and held in this huge reservoir, second in size
only to Lake Mead some 300 river miles downstream...
By
A.D. 500, the agrarian Anasazi (or Ancestral Puebloan)
and Fremont cultures used Glen Canyon’s side canyons.
The Fremont lived in pithouses, devoted more time to
hunting than farming, and made curious clay figurines
depicting hair “bobs” and necklaces. The
Anasazi also started out living in pithouses but later
moved into above ground pueblos and cliffhouses and
practiced dry farming as well as building dams and ditches
to irrigate their crops. They created some of the finest
pottery in the Southwest. Seasonal floods followed by
drought and a general lack of tillable soil must have
continually challenged these farmers. By the end of
the 1200s, both the Fremont and Anasazi had abandoned
the region...
—From
“Still Waters” by Stewart Aitchison
Still
Waters
Stewart Aitchison
32 pages with 30 color images. 9”x9”
Translations are available in French and German.
ISBN 1-58071-000-X (English Edition)
$5.95 
ISBN 1-58071-025-5 (French Edition)
$7.95
ISBN 1-58071-026-3 (German Edition)
$7.95
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